


Howl with me

by AcrylicMist



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Alternate Universe - No Sburb Session, Alternate Universe - Werewolf, Blood and Gore, Colonialism, Coming of Age, Cultural Differences, F/F, F/M, Found Family, Genocide, Growing Up, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Implied/Referenced Homophobia, Karkat is trying his best, Loss Of Culture, M/M, Multi, Pack Dynamics, Relocation, Shapeshifting, Violence, loss of magic
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-04-12
Updated: 2020-04-13
Packaged: 2021-03-01 18:55:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Underage
Chapters: 2
Words: 8,314
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23621923
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AcrylicMist/pseuds/AcrylicMist
Summary: Relocation. New school. Pack drama. It's all just part of the old bullshit that young alpha Karkat Vantas has to deal with.And the new wolf pack next door isn't helping.
Relationships: Dave Strider/Karkat Vantas
Comments: 28
Kudos: 102





	1. First days

**Author's Note:**

> NEW THING!!!!!! This is technically my second werewolf AU I guess but in its defense its a completely different story than Fall of Rome and will accomplish different things within the genre. 
> 
> So... here's to a good first chapter!!!!!!!!!!

First days of school always suck ass. Relocation sucked ass, high school sucked ass, and, Karkat decided, the entire state of Washington sucked particularly foul, rancid ass. 

For one it was raining. Seattle rain was a different kind of rain than the Manhattan rain he’d grown up with. It was grayer, bleaker, the horizon low with the dreary inevitability of a shitty, rainy first day at a new school across the country. It had been less than a week and he was already missing the east coast with a sharp ache in his chest. He was so far from home. 

At least Karkat wasn’t alone. The school had rerouted a separate bus to pick up his pack from the warehouse they’d moved into. It wasn’t a long drive through the outer suburbs and districts of a city that had sprung off the hide of the wider Seattle area like a wart. It was so green here, even once in the districts. There were trees growing at the street corners and hedges at the storefronts. It might have been pretty if everything outside the bus wasn’t so soggy. 

Karkat turned away from the window, scowling. He’d already read through each of the welcoming pamphlets and entry guides his dad and the local school board had assembled for him, but Karkat spent the drive fidgeting with his notes anyway just to give his mind something to think about that wasn’t dread for the future. He already knew the rules by heart. Somehow that fact just made him feel worse. 

Sollux was beside him, headphones clamped over his ears as he typed at a handheld screen, playing some homehacked version of Tetris that featured lines of code instead of shapes in a way that shouldn’t have remotely made sense, even less been playable. But Karkat had long ago given up on deciphering the computational skill of his second. Considering the other wolf’s genius just gave Karkat a headache. 

Karkat rolled his eyes at Sollux’s game and caught himself subconsciously doing a head-count for the tenth time since he’d woken up, ever-paranoid that something had happened even if that made zero fucking sense. 

He quickly took scope of the mostly empty bus. The rest of his 11 pack mates were also clumped at the back, mingling together as they pressed their faces against the glass with surprise and excitement as the unfamiliar buildings flashed by, chattering to themselves. 

Karkat didn’t feel excited. He felt slightly sick. The young alpha felt like he’d already failed and the goddamn bus wasn’t even at the fucking school yet. And then they were there, the bus pulling to a gentle stop on hissing air brakes in front of a perfectly generic-looking school. 

The building itself wasn’t particularly impressive. It was identical to a thousand other state-funded public schools. At least that was one thing that stayed the same. 

Karkat couldn’t help but scent the damp air the second he was off of the bus, stomping through a shallow puddle on the cracked concrete to face the wind. It smelled like rain, city pollution, and a fuckton of hormonal teenagers, just like any other high school. The air felt crisper, cleaner, even with the heavy promise of yet more rain. Maybe this would be okay. He pulled the hood of his jacket up over his head to fend off the light drizzle. 

It did lift his spirits a little. He couldn’t smell any other wolves— only humans. The local adolescent wolf pack was nowhere to be seen, but Karkat had long resigned himself to the bound-to-be humiliating experience of meeting the other alpha. 

He was not looking forward to that interaction. He’d had scarce contact with other alphas that weren’t his dad and none of them had made any good memories. This Egbert guy was probably the same— some ego-driven jock with far too much testosterone. 

Karkat sighed as the rest of his pack filed off of the bus. “Alright, listen up, fuckwits!” Karkat yelled, rounding on his small pack where they littered the sidewalk as he launched into his mentally pre-written spiel. “Whatever you do, do _not_ fuck this up! A lot of people are counting on us to get this right, and I’m not going to rub our fetid, stinking ruin over this shining chance at a new start we’ve been so graciously offered.” That last part hurt to admit, but he was past that now. It was time to face the music, and the music was “voluntary relocation.” 

Terezi was watching him with unblinking eyes, her hand clamped around Tavros’s shoulder as she gave dagger-eyes to Vriska, clearly not listening to a word he said. Kanaya was touching up her lipstick. Karkat only felt a little bit disheartened at the lack of concern. They’d all heard this before. Karkat had been preaching this same speech for the past month, but at least Nepeta was bouncing on the balls of her feet, her eyes wide as she nodded at her brother to continue. 

Karkat took a deep breath. He could do this. “And whatever you do- do not antagonize the local pack! We’re fucking lucky their alpha was down with us moving here and we are not going to make this anymore painful than it has to be for anyone involved, am I under-fucking-stood?”

No one spoke up to argue, even if he knew that not everyone was pleased with the move. Karkat gritted his teeth and prayed he’d make it through the day without strangling anyone too important as he led the way into the building to escape the rain that was rapidly becoming more than a light drizzle. Once inside he could hear it gently pattering on the tin roof overhead, too soft for human ears to make out.

It didn’t take long for him to find the correct homeroom. The school wasn’t that large and the hallways were color-coded according to grade. The first bell had already rung so the hallways were empty of human students milling about as his pack all but invaded the school. Once inside the protected hallways and outside of the elements he could smell them—other wolves, their scents unfamiliar and acrid as that of strangers. The smell was faint and blended with the overpowering odor of humans but it still made his skin prickle. 

The fucking hag of a home room teacher publicly announced their arrival in the most humiliating way possible as Karkat pushed open the correct door, resigned to a boring first day of school. 

“Class,” the woman said excitedly, her hands waving like she wanted to steer him to the front of the classroom but not quite daring to touch him. She smelled like Bath and Body Works had thrown up on her and standing close was like taking a bite out of a scented candle. The whole room stopped to stare. “This is the new wolf and his pack we’re welcoming into our lovely community! Everyone, don’t be shy, let them know you’re excited to have them here!”

There was absolutely no sound from the class and Karkat’s cheeks were burning as he felt the two-dozen different too-interested human eyes bore into him as the teacher fawned over his pack in misplaced goodwill. Karkat just wanted to sink right into the goddamn floor as the humans stared at him like he was a circus sideshow. 

Or not all human. He caught the scent before he’d made it to his seat, stomping past the teacher after refusing to submit to the indignity of introducing himself, perceived rudeness be dammed. An unfamiliar beta, their scent sharp as a knife. Karkat immediately picked him out of the crowd—he was the only person that didn’t look slightly scared as Karkat’s pack filtered into the classroom to choose the strategically placed empty desks. 

The school was keeping them together for the first few days, then they’d get broken up into the individual classrooms like normal students. The grand result of this poorly thought out plan was thirteen wolves and twenty human teens crammed into a single windowless classroom. Karkat felt his teeth grinding together.

Karkat kept his eyes on the stranger as he slumped into his chair. He didn’t hear a word of anything the teacher was saying as he watched the other wolf. 

The beta was older for sure, maybe by a year or two, with muscular shoulders and a tall frame that instantly made Karkat feel that much more inferior. The other wolf kept his strange ocher eyes on the front of the classroom, innocently taking notes, but Karkat could see him texting one-handed under his desk with practiced ease. 

Was this orange-eyed wolf telling his alpha exactly where Karkat’s pack was? Fuck, of course he fucking was. Karkat had to swallow the uneasy growl that rose in his throat and he hid his clenched fists in his pockets, already dreading the rival alpha he’d yet to meet. 

... 

The strange beta followed them to the next class, where a different wolf joined him. She put her head close to his and whispered quietly enough that not even Karkat’s keen ears could pick it up. It made him nervous. He was certain they were talking about him.

“Terezi?” Karkat asked, equally as soft as he shot the pair of wolves a quick glance.

She responded immediately, knowing exactly what he was after as she zeroed in on the two strangers, adjusting the thick glasses that covered her eyes. “The girl’s name is Roxy. She’s asking him about us.”  
“And?” Karkat asked, and he felt his own pack lean in to hear. Karkat felt a pang of shadow disappointment from his dad. It’d been less than three hours and he was already actively spying on the other pack. He couldn’t help it—he was curious. And paranoid. Mostly paranoid, if he was being honest with himself.

Terezi continued, her sensitive ears easily picking up the sound of the other wolves chatter. “She said that John’s stuck in the library until lunch, and to lay low until they hear from him again. She’s pissed. The school board apparently decided to remove John from the equation until they had more control of the situation.”

Karkat couldn’t help but feel relieved that he wouldn’t accidentally run into the rival alpha without warning, but his skin prickled with the idea of a reversed situation—him locked up somewhere while an enemy pack prowled through his territory. Fuck, this John probably already hated him.

“That is the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard,” Karkat said, disgusted. “Who the fuck planned this?”

“Obviously not a wolf,” Terezi pointed out, settling into her seat. “This is a dumpster-fire of a master plan and I’m guessing it’s the human’s fault.”

Karkat nodded wearily. Humans would never understand how packs worked. Even when they tried to help they always did more harm than good. 

“I don’t like being dissed behind my back,” Vriska said, loud and brash. She shot a poisonous stare at the two rival wolves, raising her voice until the teacher called for order. “If they have something to say they can say it to our faces.”

The eyes of the strange female wolf snapped up to meet them. She winked and blew a kiss directly at Vriska, curling her lips into a smug grin that only barely showed teeth.

Vriska immediately tensed, her eyes blazing as she made to jump up. Karkat leaned across the thin aisle of the rows of desks and clamped down on her arm, swallowing a growl. “Don’t,” he hissed, whispering furiously. “You fucking invited that and you know it. Behave yourself.”

“Or what, oh great leader?” Vriska snapped back sarcastically. “Are you going to stop me?”

Karkat took his hand off his packmate’s arm one finger at a time, knowing that the other two wolves were watching him like hawks. He returned the stare, zeroing in on the girl that’d challenged Vriska until he could feel his eyes gleam with the power of his birthright. She looked away.

He hated doing this. He hated giving orders and using his status as an alpha to force his packmates to fall into line. He turned his eyes on Vriska next, until she bristled and sulked. 

“I know you’re upset,” Karkat tried, lowering his voice. “But quit it with this confrontational bullshit. No one’s happy here and this isn’t only about you, so please think about the consequences before you rush off picking fights with wolves you don’t know.”

Vriska scoffed at him, tongue between her teeth, but she didn’t answer him or complain. She didn’t outright challenge him either, so that was probably as close to victory as he was going to get. Karkat leaned back in his desk again, watching his packmates more than the teacher who fumbled through his lesson plans as things began to settle down.

Then the intercom buzzed overhead, nasal and staticky. “Karkat Vantas, report to the library please.”

Oh shit. That’s where Egbert was. Karkat stood up, shrugging his shoulders like he had the weight of the world on his back. This was about to be unpleasant for sure. Nepeta stood up as well, instantly at his side with her wordless support. 

The teacher interrupted them at the door, squinting at them. “The announcement called for only you, or did I mishear?”

Karkat stared at the man, incredulous. “I don’t know where the library is,” he said slowly, playing off the teacher’s lack of pack understanding. “Do you really want me wandering around the hallways by myself?” If there was one thing Karkat was good at, it was talking his way to favorable conclusions. Bonus points if he made it seem like going alone was inviting trouble. His oversized gray hoodie and general air of ragey assholeness helped out as well. 

Terezi snickered behind him, seeing straight through his act. The teacher glanced sympathetically at him and Karkat tried not to look so pissed off. 

“Alright then,” the man allowed after a brief pause. “Carry on.”

Sweet success. Karkat headed to the door with his sister. 

“Hey, Mr. Dixin?” The nameless male beta spoke up from the back of the room in an easy drawl. “I can show them to the library if you’d like. It would only be polite.”

Karkat ground his teeth together as his temper flared. That bastard.

“Yes, Dirk, thank you. That would be splendid,” Mr. Dixin said, and the muscular older wolf joined them. He didn’t say anything, and dammit if Karkat was going be the one to speak first. Karkat made sure to place himself between his sister and the strange wolf, which only made him that much more aware of how much taller the beta was. Karkat only came up to the top of the other wolf’s chest.

Karkat tried not to stare but couldn’t help but catalogue everything about the other wolf as they silently marched to wherever the fuck the library was in this building. The strange beta, Dirk, the teacher had called him, loped quietly along beside him with his hands in his pockets. His odd orange-amber eyes kept flicking to the side to glance at Karkat and the tendons in his neck were tight in a way that let Karkat know the other wolf was grinding his teeth together in the only visible sign of stress that he let himself show.

Karkat figured that was pretty brave of him, actually. It was rare to find a beta that would willingly submit themselves to being alone with a strange alpha, and outnumbered too with Nepeta here. This Dirk must have either been brave or reckless. 

Or, Karkat had to hastily reconsider, Dirk was far smarter than he had given the wolf credit for, because when they turned the final corner there was another wolf lounging against the wall beside a pair of double doors, the word library stamped across the top in bold letters and just like that, the odds were even. Or worse than even with Egbert holed up just behind those flimsy doors. Karkat had to do a double-take when he saw the new wolf just to make sure he wasn’t seeing things because the newcomer was almost completely identical to Dirk, but the longer Karkat looked the more small differences he saw. Fucking twins.

“Dirk,” the new wolf greeted, nodding his head as he obviously and openly studied Karkat and Nepeta. His eyes weren’t the bright citrine of Dirk’s, they were paler, strangely red-washed, and his carefully done hair was a few shades closer to white than the red-gold, bleached blond of Dirk’s. Aside from that, the pair were identical right down to the smattering of freckles that graced their faces. 

“Hal,” Dirk sighed, oddly defeated, definitely unsurprised. “What the fuck are you doing here?”

Hal shrugged, his eyes not moving off of Karkat, who bristled under the glare. “I thought you’d like some backup.”

“John can handle himself,” Dirk said, quietly confident. 

“It’s not John who I was worried about,” Hal laughed, his teasing expression entirely different from his brother’s careful apathy. “Come on now, let’s get this party over with before John blows a fucking gasket.”

Karkat had a second to brace himself as Hal flung the doors open wide. Oh God, he wasn’t ready. He wasn’t read to meet the alpha he’d have to somehow find a way to exist adjacent with, especially not like this, outnumbered and far from his own territory. But he had his packmate at his side and an alpha’s worth of pride to stiffen his spine, so he didn’t hesitate to square his shoulders and push his way past the pair of rival wolves to finally meet their leader. 

The library was far from empty. Several members of the school board were scattered about, talking with their heads close together. There was a police officer by the back wall as an extra reminder for him to hold his temper in check because Karkat didn’t feel like getting tased today. 

It wasn’t hard at all to spot the other alpha; Karkat’s eyes were drawn to him from where the wolf was lounging across the floor with a colorful comic book open in front of his face. At the sound of the doors being flung open, Egbert dropped the book onto his chest and looked up.

The other alpha’s eyes were an unreal shade of blue and just for a second they crackled with power when they met his own eyes. Karkat had to stop himself from baring teeth at the other wolf. His strong dislike was sudden and instinctive. 

Egbert got up in one fluid, athletic motion that made Karkat instantly hate him all the more. And holy shit was this guy tall. Tall and built. He filled up the space around him with his presence in a way that Karkat could have never pulled off and again made him feel that much more inferior as an alpha. Fuck, Egbert was the star poster child for how a young alpha was supposed to look. In contrast Karkat was nothing but a short trash gremlin with an anger problem. 

Egbert gave him a clear once-over and Karkat crossed his arms over his chest, seething.

“Wow,” Egbert said, chuckling. “You’re shorter than I’d thought you’d be.”

Karkat growled low in his throat, low enough that the humans couldn’t hear. Nepeta moved to his side, flanking him, her hands in fists and her chin raised. 

Egbert held up a placating hand at the noise, as much to calm Karkat as it was to wave off Dirk and Hal from advancing at the sound of the growl. “Easy there,” Egbert cautioned, but he didn’t look worried. He looked way too excited and eager. What was wrong with this guy? “We’re all friends here. It’s Karkat, right? I’m John. It’s nice to finally meet you.” He held out his hand to offer Karkat a handshake.

Karkat stared at the presented appendage like he’d love to rip it off, or at least bite it. What the fuck was this Egbert guy even thinking? A handshake? Did he want to lose a few fingers in a stupid human ritual of dominance? Karkat didn’t uncross his arms from his chest. “It’s nice to meet you too, Egbert” he said, trying to at least be civil. 

The other alpha slowly withdrew his hand, looking sheepish but not offended. “It’s just John,” he said. “Egbert is my dad.”

Karkat shrugged. “Fine,” he said, looking around at the library, the teachers and board office members anxiously listening in, the ever-present police officer, and the twin betas he still didn’t really know. All in all, way too many strangers around for a meeting between alphas. “Would it have killed them to offer us a bit of privacy?”

John shrugged, mirroring him. “Probably,” he admitted. “Your dad assured us that you weren’t the type of alpha to pick fights without reason, but it is your first day here and I think they’re just being cautious.”

Karkat had to hold back a wince at the idea of John talking with his dad about him. God, who knows what his dad told this guy? Probably nothing good. And the reminder of necessary caution just made him that much more aware of everything that was riding on him getting along with John and his pack. And Karkat wasn’t going to be the wolf that fucked this up. 

“Well, they can fucking relax,” Karkat told him, shaking his head. “I’m not here to challenge you or make your life any harder than it needs to be. I understand this is going to suck for both of us, and we owe it to our packs not to constantly be at each other’s throats over dumb bullshit.”

John nodded enthusiastically, and even though they were the same age the other alpha looked so much younger in that instant. “That’s great!” he said, pleased. “I was worried you’d be all gung-ho about asserting yourself and all that, but this is much better!” He scrunched up his nose like he smelled something sour, something dark crossing his eyes as he muttered. “I hate pack drama. I’d much rather stay on good terms with you and your pack since you’re our new neighbors after all.”

That sounded too good to be true. “That works for me,” Karkat said, secretly relieved that John seemed okay with coexisting. Maybe this wouldn’t lead to violence sometime in the future. “I’ll keep my pack on our side of the railroad tracks. Aside from school we shouldn’t run into each other much.”

“Alright,” John agreed. “There’s a few good places to hang uptown as well, parks and clubs and stuff. You’re welcome to use those if you’d like, I’m not about to cut you off from any public places. We’ll stay out of your neighborhoods if you show us the same courtesy. That way we won’t step on each other’s tails.” 

This was good. Mutual respect, clear boundaries, the promise of security on his own turf—Karkat could work with these. He could build a life for his pack here. He could find a way to make this work. 

John’s eyes drifted to the wolf at Karkat’s side. “Who’s this?”

“Nepeta,” his sister answered, crossing her arms across her chest. “And alpha or not, I will kick your ass if you mess with my brother.”

John blinked, clearly putting together the family resemblance between the two Vantas-Leijons. “Siblings?” he questioned curiously, not the least bit offended by the obvious threat.

Karkat nodded, exasperated at Nepeta but unsurprised at her bravery. He could have done without the fighting words though. He very carefully did not think about Kankri, who had elected to stay with dad’s pack as yet more proof that Karkat was a worthless leader. 

“That’s great!” John said, still over-excited. “I’d love to have a sibling myself, but I guess cousins will have to do.” He glanced over at Dirk and Hal, who were still watching the interaction closely. 

Karkat spoke up, trying to keep up the polite small talk as well as get to know the other wolves he’d be seeing around. “And those two?”

“There’s actually five of them,” John admitted, scratching at the back of his neck. “Though Dirk and Hal are the only twins, and it’s a bit of a nightmare to tell the two apart sometimes.”

“Five?” Karkat asked, shocked. “How many wolves do you have?”

John shrugged sheepishly. “Eighteen,” he answered proudly. “Though only nine of us are in school. The rest are the parents and other extended family members, as well as a few that joined up after I was born.”

“There’s twelve of us,” Karkat answered, thinking John’s answer over. 18 wolves, and half of them grown ass adults. Karkat could barely handle 11 agemates, and one of them was his sister. He couldn’t imagine trying to handle any more than that. 

“Twelve’s a good number,” John agreed. “I know that you’re lucky to have them.”

Karkat wanted to bristle at the other alpha’s interest in his packmates, but he restrained himself. He was just being paranoid. 

“You should see the younger of us around the school, but they shouldn’t bother you or yours,” John promised. “They’ve been specifically instructed not to be dicks, but who knows how well that’ll hold up under any willful antagonism.” He shot Karkat a pointed look. “We won’t be pushed around.”

Karkat hurriedly answered back, politely ignoring the hidden threat. This was a meeting between alphas—hidden threats were part of the trade. That’s what built respect, the knowledge that strong teeth hid behind Egbert’s open grin. Karkat hadn’t expected anything less. “Don’t worry,” he agreed. “My pack’s been likewise ordered to not be assholes, but they won’t stand for any bullying,” he said, parrying back John’s earlier threat. 

John nodded, pleased. Karkat felt a small tinge of pride warm his chest. Maybe he wasn’t fucking this up after all.

“One more thing,” John said, still smiling. “I have a beta I want you to stay away from.”

Dirk and Hal leaned closer, Dirk expressionless, Hal anxious. It made Karkat nervous, but John was still grinning. Nepeta pressed closer to his side. 

John continued. “Stay away from Jade,” he said, steel in his voice. “She can be overly friendly, but back off.”

Karkat’s eyebrows raised at that. and they’d been doing so well. “Can I ask why? Or at least know which one is Jade?”

John’s expression didn’t change, but both Dirk and Hal relaxed like John had surprised them. What had they feared their leader telling him? 

“You’ll know her when you see her,” John promised. “That’s why I want you to stay away. She’s got her natural-born ears showing at all times. Kinda like our own little miracle, right?” the other alpha said, wonder in his voice. 

Karkat blinked as Nepeta stiffened at his side. “You mean she’s got wolf ears?”

“I do,” John agreed. “And I know it’s rare. I know how unusual it is, and I don’t want any of your wolves prodding at her for it.”

Karkat had to stop his mouth from falling open. A beta with true-born ears in this day and age? Immediate curiosity aside, Karkat knew what he needed to do. “Nepeta,” he said. “Show them your hands.”

His sister held out both of her hands. She knew without asking what he wanted, and a second later her claws slid out, fingers flexing their dangerous points. 

John sucked in his breath, awestruck. This Jade might have been born with her natural ears, but Nepeta had been born beyond lucky—she still retained just a tiny bit of the Change in her blood, just enough to swap fingernails for claws. 

“That’s,” John began, gulping. 

Nepeta’s hands returned to strictly human form, her black-painted and heavily bitten down fingernails returning like nothing had ever happened to them, a trick that made her one of the extremely few wolves remaining that held onto a little of their heritage. 

“We won’t bother Jade if you don’t bother my sister,” Karkat spoke sternly, a growl hovering below his throat. 

John nodded on automatic, still awestruck as he stared at Nepeta, who did nothing but glare back with distaste. 

“That sounds fair,” John admitted. “I can’t ask of you what I won’t accept for myself, I guess.”

“Fine,” Karkat agreed. “Anything else or anything that comes up, I’ll be in contact, alright?”

“Right,” John approved. “I’ll send you my number later so we can be in touch if need be.”

“Sounds good,” Karkat said, and the entire room let out the breath it’d been holding as he two alphas reached a favorable agreement. The school board members relaxed, grinning with glee at success that they hadn’t earned but felt entitled to all the same. The cop uncrossed her arms. 

Overhead, the bell rang and Karkat felt a smidgen of hope. He could do this. He could forage a life here for his pack. He could make this work, and he walked out of the library with his sister at his side, feeling a little more confident than he could remember being in a long time. 

...

The rest of the school day passed without remark. Gray floors and off-white gray walls. Dingy carpet. The monotonous repetition of classes Karkat couldn’t give a shit about. At least his packmates seemed to be settling in better than expected. 

Karkat surveyed his pack as they made their way out to the bus stop after the final bell had rang. Gamzee was walking with Tavros, skillfully avoiding the teasing thwacks aimed at his ankles by Tav’s arm canes, a wide grin across his face at the familiar game. Sollux was sulking around Aradia and Feferi, Eridan glowering at her side like an ever-present shadow. Nepeta, Kanaya, and Equius were walking side-by-side, in step and everything as they gossiped about the day’s events. Terezi and Vriska were obviously plotting something together, but what the hell else was new?

The sight of his packmates going through old routines made him feel strangely at peace. Karkat took in the view with grateful eyes, then his nose caught the sharp scent of John’s pack nearby and his head snapped around.

The other pack had congregated near the front of the school, milling about on the steps. The rain had stopped and left the pavement coated in gray dampness, clean and fresh with the smell of wet grass and leftover car oil. At the moment they were outnumbered by Karkat’s pack, but only by a few. Karkat had to learn how to force himself to stop thinking in terms of who outnumbered who, because these wolves were neighbors now, not enemies. 

John was there. He gave a short wave when Karkat’s eyes passed him over, not an invitation, just a firm acknowledgement of the other alpha’s presence. Karkat nodded back, aware that his pack had gone silent as they studied the other wolves. 

Karkat did the same. So did John’s pack. It was a moment of mutual eyeballing across the twenty or so yards of bare concrete between them as Karkat’s group kept walking to their assigned bus stop. Karkat easily picked out Hal and Dirk again, standing with Roxy and a girl Karkat didn’t know. Jade of course stood out like a sore thumb with her gleaming white ears standing out proudly from her wild mane of black hair. Karkat let himself stare, just a little, hungry for the sight of natural ears. On her human face they looked out of place, but Karkat imagined them attached to her true form and the image in his head shifted from awkwardness into envious beauty at the idea. Wolf or not, Karkat, like every other wolf born for the last one hundred and fifty years, was perpetually locked in human form. Wolves like Jade or Nepeta were all that was left from a legacy of trueborn wolves, and a painful knot tightened inside his heart at the sight, growing tighter and tighter as he witnessed just a piece of what had been taken from him. 

There were a few other wolves as well but Karkat didn’t pay them any real attention. He’d learn their names later. For now a glimpse of them would do, but then a scent wafted to his nose, something unlike anything he’d ever scented before. It was both sharp and warm all at once, and so utterly different that it floored him. The scent was clearly a wolf, definitely not human, but it was unlike any wolf Karkat had smelled before. 

He immediately turned to Terezi, burning with curiosity. “Do you smell that?”

Terezi expertly sniffed the air with the best nose in his pack. Karkat looked hopefully at her until she shrugged and adjusted her thick red glasses. “Smell what? The other wolves?”

“Sort of,” Karkat answered, the scent fading in his nose, feeling foolish now. “I just thought one smelled different.”

“Different how?” Terezi asked, interested. She sniffed again, but her face remained disappointed. 

“I don’t know,” Karkat answered, shrugging. They were at the bus stop now. John’s pack was behind them. Karkat loaded himself onto the bus in single file after his packmates, ready for the short trip back to the place he was still trying to convince himself was home. He looked back one more time at the school and John’s pack, and caught the eye of a beta in wearing dark sunglasses he hadn’t noticed before. Even though he couldn’t see the wolf’s expression, Karkat was sure the beta was looking right at him and the memory of that strange scent burned in his nose as the bus began to bounce its way down the road.


	2. The Warehouse Rules

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is a pretty short chapter because I can't stand chapter twos and it feels slow, but it serves as a good launching board from which to dive into the rest of the story so, enjoy!

The refitted warehouse that his pack had moved into was once a car garage, then an office, and now a pack-owned group home for wayward young packs, a category that Karkat viciously hated being a part of, with all of its inherent embarrassing and shameful connotations. The building still smelled like motor oil and old gasoline, soot stains on the tin roof, the bare concrete of the open floor below the raised rooms cluttered with couches, a table, bean bags, and an entertainment system that had seen better days. Karkat’s footsteps echoed across the space as he unlocked the doors and stepped inside. 

It didn’t smell like home here. There were pigeons nesting in the roof and the walls were stark and bare. But it was a great deal. There weren’t many places in town that could fit a pack like his without smushing them all together and here everyone had their own rooms and each room had a window, and the central space might have been cold but it was large enough for them and hopefully a study rug would take the chill out of the concrete floor. 

The two staircases led to the balcony that ringed the building, all of the rooms on the second floor arranged in an oddly prison-like style, but it could be made homely. Karkat could work with this. Already his packmates had chosen their rooms and were trying to terraform the building into something loved, something inhabited. 

Karkat marched straight over to one of the overly large chairs and sank into it, relaxing just a little for the first time all day. Nepeta drifted off to hunt for Equius and Gamzee switched on the TV, filling the space with the chatter of a human sports channel before he flipped it over onto MTV. Karkat drank in the familiar sounds of his pack existing around him, and the comforting noises soothed him. Tavros was laughing from somewhere to his left, and Aradia was chuckling too. 

Sollux took a seat in the chair beside him, settling his skinny frame down, long arms crossed over his chest. He grunted at Karkat, a noncommittal noise. 

Karkat resisted the urge to roll his eyes, somewhat irritated at his second for interrupting his attempt at relaxation. “What?”

Sollux shrugged. The beta was Karkat’s closest friend, his eyes and ears for what went on within his pack. “So,” Sollux said, a slight lisp coloring his voice. “School today could have gone worse than it did.”

“Yeah,” Karkat agreed, closing his eyes. “Did you expect it to?”

Sollux shrugged again. He didn’t answer. “How was the new alpha?”

“Surprisingly bearable,” Karkat answered with his eyes still closed, picturing John. “We both want to make this fucked up situation work.” He rubbed at his tired eyes, sleep impossibly far away. 

“Was anything said that we need to know about?” Sollux asked curiously, always on the alert for pack-wide issues. 

Karkat was the one to shrug this time. “I’ll let everyone know later tonight,” he said. “I’ll let them rest for now. Settle in, establish a routine.” He opened his eyes to see Sollux smirking at him. “What?”

“Feferi wants a cat,” Sollux deadpanned. He began counting other items off whatever mental list he kept. “Your sister is behind her on it. Kanaya wants to transform our new and meager backyard into a garden. Vriska is plotting something malicious and chaotic but I don’t know what, big surprise there, I know, and for some godawful reason Eridan wants to learn to fucking skateboard.”

Karkat sighed. “Did all of this happen today?” He asked, dejected. 

“Most of its old stuff,” Sollux answered, also sighing as he looked over the pack with his mismatched eyes, one light amber, the other shockingly black below his sandy hair. “The cat is new though.”

“Dammit,” Karkat cursed quietly, seething. “Why a fucking cat? Cats hate wolves.”

“They want a kitten,” Sollux elaborated. “A young one that won’t hate us when it’s grown.”

“Why?” Karkat stressed again, and there goes all of his relaxation. The tension was back in him now. 

“We’re in a new place,” Sollux told him, glancing around. “Maybe they think it’s time for new things as well.”

Karkat pictured it. A garden in the backyard, a cat sleeping on the windowsill, a skateboard in Eridan’s room, Vriska being Vriska…

It wasn’t a bad picture. It was his pack staking claim to this life as theirs, piece by piece. 

“I’ll talk to them,” Karkat promised, feeling a little calmer again. “After dinner once things calm down for once.” The sound of Terezi’s shrieking laughter rang out from the second story, followed by a crash, the unmistakable sound of glass shattering. 

“We’re good!” Terezi yelled from upstairs, cackling.

Karkat sighed as Sollux lifted one dark eyebrow. 

“Calm down?” Sollux questioned sarcastically, voice scathing. 

“Fuck,” Karkat sighed. “I hope whatever she just broke wasn’t that expensive.”

Sollux shrugged, grinning as he slipped a beanie over his hair. “I’m off,” he said. “Things to do, firewalls to code, laws to break. Same old, same old.”

Karkat rolled his eyes at his genius beta. “Just don’t infiltrate the FBI again,” he warned. “You got off easy the first time you hacked them.” 

“I’ll be fine,” Sollux reassured him. “I have you watching my back, don’t I?”

The question was meant to be rhetorical, but it soured Karkat’s stomach as he watched his second wander off to do no good. Karkat’s dad had gotten Sollux off the hook for his first big hacking offense, leveling his considerable power and influence as the most famous alpha of modern times to sway the FBI into dropping the charges. Karkat didn’t have that kind of swing to him. He didn’t have any influence or power. He was just himself, and If Sollux hacked himself into trouble again, Karkat wasn’t sure he could get his packmate out of it. 

There was a danger in being as young as he was, especially with zero older packmates to help him navigate the world. John was lucky he had a few adults and parents with him. Karkat wasn’t even the oldest wolf here—that was Equius, followed by Aradia, and even if those few months shouldn’t account for much, they sure felt like they did. 

Wisdom comes with time, his dad had said. Karkat didn’t have time. He was seventeen and angry at everything and still feared that he’d fuck things up irrevocably. He felt like he was balancing on a knife’s edge of bad decisions, one straw away from killing the camel himself just to put it out of its misery. He was sure a human had come up with that saying about straws and camels. Violence disguised as mercy had always suited them best. 

Karkat stood up and made his tired way over to one of the front windows, pulling back the curtain to watch the cars drive by. The sight worried him and reminded him of a billion things that he still had to do, like fence in the property, install a gate so that random human idiots couldn’t walk up to the front door, something iron and steel for sure, plant some goddamn trees so the property wasn’t so bare and dead, and finish registering the land as pack territory with the county board office. 

Karkat stared out over the dead grass with distaste. Maybe Kanaya was right about her garden idea. Maybe some plant growth would help breathe the soul of his pack to life here and remind them of home even in the middle of an unfamiliar, sterile city. 

From upstairs he could hear Aradia and Tavros laughing again, and thought that maybe he could do this after all. He headed up the staircase to his corner bedroom to grab his computer. He had work to do.

…

Karkat worked long into the night, fighting on the front lines of email after email as he argued haggled with the county board office over inches of space, because for some godawful and surely fucked reason the humans wanted to declare only the building as pack land and not the actual land itself, which ruined the whole reason of acquiring the land for the pack in the first place. Karkat growled to himself as he shot off another strongly worded email. He didn’t have a head for politics, never did. If he kept butting heads with the board office he’d be forced to drag Eridan or Terezi into this mess and hope his more socially and legally savvy packmates could make sense of the situation. He still had the sense that the humans were attempting to rip him off, whether because they thought he was young and stupid or a wolf in general was up to question. 

He’d missed dinner. It was still early enough into the switch that he mostly just let his packmates fend for themselves and make whatever they wanted. He had a full grocery tab every month so they could eat what they wanted; he wasn’t about to start policing every smallest aspect of their lives. He trusted his packmates enough to believe that they wouldn’t give themselves scurvy by only eating chips and dip for months on end. 

He traveled back downstairs for food only to catch Gamzee drinking hot sauce right out the damn bottle in the middle of the kitchen and a migraine started forming behind his eyes. 

Gamzee licked the condiment off his lips. “Hey, my brother,” he said happily. “Kanaya made bacon.”

The plate of bacon was cold and picked over but it would do for now. Karkat didn’t have the time do make himself anything that would take longer than a bowl of cereal. Karkat slid the plate in front of him as he slumped in the barstool. It was easy to be civil with Gamzee, to push aside all of his stress. Gamzee was pack, and pack always came first. “Hey to yourself. How well did you like the school today?”

Gamzee grinned lazily and shrugged his loose shoulders, skinny forearms lodging his hands in his pockets. His wild hair was getting shaggy again. It fell into his eyes and hid their color from view until he shook his head to clear them. “It’s alright, I guess. I don’t like most schoolfeeding but the building itself doesn’t make my skin want to crawl off my bones quite as much as our old one.”

Karkat tapped his fingertips against the countertop as he chewed. Gamzee looked tired, his pale face haunted. “Anything that I can do to help?” He asked, feeling an instinctive bolt of worry shoot through him.  
Gamzee shook his head. “Naw,” he said, brushing off his alpha’s apprehension. “I’ve got Tav to keep an eye on me.” He chuckled heavily to himself, eyes distant. “There ain’t no trees here, Karbro.”

“I know,” Karkat answered, grating the spoon against the bottom of his bowl. “We’ll plant them all around the building this weekend, all kinds of trees. Bushes, flowers, fruit, whatever will help you be comfortable here. Just name it and I’ll make sure that it happens.”

Gamzee showed his teeth in a smile that was only a little too-wide. “Tav wants the steps out back redone,” he said at once, drawling. “They’re too steep for him.” He too another healthy swig of the hot sauce and Karkat had to grind his teeth together to stop from puking. 

“I’ll put in a ramp,” Karkat promised. “One with handrails.”

Gamzee nodded, pleased, and wandered off still clutching the bottle of hot sause. Karkat quickly finished his piss-poor meal and retreated back to his room. 

His computer screen sat blinking at him, full of pesters from packmates and group memo boards blowing up about what was mostly pure bullshit, and a few RP invites from Nepeta that he guiltily clicked out of. 

It was the blue that caught his eye, a shade that wasn’t Equius or Vriska, blue as the midday sky.

ectoBiologist (EB) wants to Pester carcinoGeneticist (CG) at 10:24pm!

Karkat only accepted the invite because screaming at a random internet troll was exactly what he needed right now. 

CG: WHO THE FUCK ARE YOU SUPPOSED TO BE?  
CG: AND WHAT THE HELL KIND OF NAME IS ECTOBIOLOGIST? THIS IS FUCKING PESTERCHUM! KEEP YOUR SCIENTIFIC ASPIRATIONS TO YOURSELF AND ACT LIKE A WORTHLESS BASTARD LIKE THE REST OF US GOOD PESTERCHUM FOLKS WHO DON’T GIVE A SINGLE FLYING SHIT ABOUT THE FUTURE!  
EB: hey karkat!  
CG: WHAT THE FUCK???  
EB: it’s me john. egbert. we met today and I thought it would be a good idea if there was a way for us to communicate on line so I had your pack office coordinator give me your pester chum information 

Karkat felt his migraine throb at the idea, because his pack office coordinator was his brother, and Kankri had no business handing out his contact handles to rival alphas. 

CG: YOU TALKED TO KANKRI?  
EB: yeah! he seems like nice guy but it is kind of strange that he didn’t join your pack

Karkat had to dial back his instinctive urge to start swearing at John, because this was still an alpha he needed to stay on good terms with and he’d already mistakenly insulted the guy enough, even if John was poking at things that weren’t his fucking business. The wound in his heart where his brother's absence laid itself bare between his ventricles was still sore, the hole made of his inadequacies and failures brimming to the top with rot that try as he might, Karkat couldn't scrub clean .

CG: WHATEVER KANKRI TOLD YOU ABUT ME WAS PROBABLY A LIE. HE ONLY GOT HIS POSITION ON THE BOARD DUE TO NEPOTISM ANYWAY.  
EB: No worries there!  
EB: I didn’t really talk to him much beyond asking for your handle. He seemed very busy  
CG: YEAH.  
CG: I GUESS IT IS A GOOD IDEA FOR US TO HAVE A WAY TO TALK THAT DOESN’T INVOLVE US MEETING AT A NEUTRAL PUBLIC PLACE.  
CG: ALSO PLEASE DISREGARD THE AGGRESSIVE BULLSHIT I OPENED WITH. I THOUGHT YOU WERE A TROLL.  
EB: that is okay. Do you get trolls a lot?  
CG: NOT REALLY. MY SECOND DOES A PRETTY GOOD JOB WITH BLOCKING MOST BOTS AND RANDOS.  
EB: oh man you are so lucky. They harass me all the time and I can not get rif of them  
EB: they are really frustrating! I’m trying to learn to code to stop them but it’s difficult to pick up the basics  
CG: DON’T ASK ME FOR HELP I SUCK AT CODING.  
EB: glad that’s a thing we both share  
EB: I’ve got to go, but don’t hesitate to reach out to me if there’s a problem we need to address.  
CG: FINE, AND THAT GOES BOTH WAYS. JUST DON’T BLOW UP MY INBOX ALRIGHT? I DEAL WITH ENOUGH SHIT AS IT IS.  
EB: alright, night karkat!

ectoBiologist (EB) is an Idle chum!

Karkat looked away from his screen for two seconds until another Pester appeared.

Gallows Callirator (GC) Pestered carcinoGeneticist (CG) at 10:50pm!

GC: K4RK4T W3 4S 4 P4CK H4V3 D3C1D3D T0 HOST 4 N41l P41NT1NG P4RTY 4ND 1 H4V3 M4D3 UP MY M1ND TH4T YOU C4NNOT R3FUS3.  
GC: COM3 OUT 4ND JO1N US OR 1LL B3 FORC3D TO T4K3 DR4ST1C M34SUR3S >:)  
CG: DO I REALLY HAVE TO?  
GC: Y3S. YOU 4R3 NOT 4LLOW3D TO SK1P OUT ON M4ND1TORY FUN N1GHT.  
GC: IF YOU COM3 W1LL1NGLY WE’11 L3T YOU R3MOV3 TH3 P41NT 4FT3RW4RDS  
CG: WHY MUST YOU INSIST ON MAKING ME UNCOMFORTABLE LIKE THIS? CAN”T YOU PAINT ERIDAN’S NAILS INSTEAD? I’M SURE HE WOULD LOVE THAT.  
GC: TOO L4T3! 3V3RYON3 3LS3 1S 4LR34DY DOWN H3R3 H4V1NG FUN SO K1NDLY G3T YOUR 4SS 1N G34R.  
CG: FINE OKAY. I’M ON MY WAY NOW YOU OVERLY PUSHY DRAMA QUEEN. 

gallowsCallibrator (GC) is an Idle chum!

Karkat signed as he made his way down the stairs and out of his room, glad that at least his pack would always be there for him even if his fingernails had to suffer for it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh wow its been a while since I did a proper pesterlog and I forgot how much I love them! Hahahahaha I love sweet world and pack building.

**Author's Note:**

> What a jam packed first chapter! Most questions will be answered by the next update because I tried to avoid info-dumping and world building overload in chapter one, since this is a unique world I'm trying to create. But still feel free to ask any questions in the comment section and I'll try to get back to you if its not a spoiler. 
> 
> Can you feel it? It's the start of something new! I'm so excited!


End file.
